theconstellationiris

Good god, you’re really telling me I’m old enough to have now lived through two entire Nintendo Power lifecycles?! That’s just mean.

RIP Nintendo Power, again. 😭

@Serpenterror I mean, I didn’t say a cloud version would be good, or preferred. Granted, I’m also not sure a version that cuts content from other versions would be preferable, either.

@Paraka Haha, agreed on both counts.

Never any doubt about the score on this one. Today is going to be a very, very long day…but hyyyyyyyype!

I’m so jealous of all of you who get to review this ahead of the rest of the world getting their hands on it. 😅

Backwards compatibility confirmed!

Kidding, of course, but hopeful anyway.

MK11 running on Switch was/is super impressive, and I love having it, but unless this has a major change in art style that helps it run well on Switch, I’m suspecting it might be a cloud version or something. I ultimately ended up double-dipping on PS5 during a sale. Would love to be proven wrong, though!

@koffing Agreed; it’s a surprisingly emotional ad, but not entirely convinced it’s an uplifting one.

@KBuckley27 Ah, yeah, I misread and added the new total to the previous quarterly results. Oops! Still think it could happen before discontinuation, but yeah, that does make it a bit harder. Either way, an incredible lifecycle.

@Jimmy_G_Buckets It really could go other way. Nintendo has a middling track record with backwards compatibility for its consoles, but it has been commonly available in its handhelds, and Switch (obviously) sits at the intersection of both modalities. I definitely hope you’re right, and they add it to their next system, but I’m sure the appeal of $50-70 “Deluxe” port upsells is hard to ignore for the sales folks.

@blockfight Hear, hear. For years, the SNES was still my favorite console (and, counting purely for nostalgia, might still be), but Switch surpassed all that with room to spare. I suspect I’ll still be reaching for it over other gaming devices for a long while yet to come.

Still going to pass NDS/PS2 if they meet next year’s target (and even if they don’t, almost certainly before it’s discontinued anyway). Absolutely incredible, and more so considering how strong sales still are for a console going into its seventh year.

Time to start squirreling away my pennies for the next system.

@Cashews I’m not sure if you misread my comment, or perhaps I misstated something, because the scenario you’re presenting isn’t at all what I was talking about — let me see if can clarify a bit:

It perhaps doesn’t happen alarmingly often, but games in digital stores (the eShop, yes, but also other digital stores) do become unavailable for a variety of reasons, and the nature of their removal may mean games (or versions of games) that could be lost to time, without methods to preserve them — in the Switch’s case, that would necessitate emulation, since there’s currently no official way to sideload content onto one and that’s not likely to change. That’s not piracy, that’s preservation.

Now, if someone goes online and downloads a ROM of Super Mario Odyssey or Tears of the Kingdom to run in an emulator in order to circumvent purchase, yes, that’s piracy — and, like your aforementioned scenario with digital store closures, is also not what I was referring to in my prior comment.

Preservation and piracy may use many of the same tools, but they don’t serve the same goals, and it’s disingenuous to conflate them.

To say nothing of either condoning or not condoning emulation in this specific manner, there is still a case to be made for emulation as game preservation in the current gen, when current gen games that only ever see digital releases are delisted from their various stores for one reason or other (be it licensing issues, long term support viability, studio closure, or otherwise).

LRG physical edition bundled in an NES-style box announced in 3…2…1…

@SpoonySpoons That’s a totally fair assessment, and generally I actually agree that it wouldn’t work as well as perhaps we’d like in its current state. It worked pretty well for Live A Live, but it was definitely a stretch (it seems), and a remastered version of the original (that isn’t the awful mobile/Steam version from awhile back) would be ideal….although I think, if that were in the cards, we’d have seen it already, too. 😕 Mostly, I just want Chrono Trigger on Switch, even if it’s a port that’s a little bit inferior to the original.

@Magician I’ve been wondering (hoping, maybe?) if the reason we haven’t seen Chrono Trigger yet is because they’re working on a HD-2D remake. A bit of wishful thinking, to be sure, but the fact that we have Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers, along with a HD-2D remake of Live A Live, has me wondering.

Been powering through them all (again) since launch, currently halfway through FFIV. My kid started on FFI yesterday, and hanging out with her during the opening (can we talk about how funny it is that FFI uses the intro from the PS1/GBA versions, but the other added content was cut in order to “preserve the original experience” or whatever? 😂), I felt awash with emotion as I thought back to my own parents introducing me to this series all those years ago on the NES. I continue to remain as grateful as ever for these classics.

Love to see it. Monolith is an exceptional studio with an absolutely amazing history, and has been a critical part of Nintendo’s success with Switch. Well done.

It’s true that Octopath II didn’t sell well as well as the first game did in its opening week (the only sales data that currently exists for II, at least that I’m aware of), but the context that’s missing from most of those discussions is that most games didn’t sell well in Japan that week — that was also the same launch week as Kirby‘s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. I wouldn’t count out a third entry just yet.

I was interested for a moment, then saw that this wasn’t a remaster of the original trilogy of Tomb Raider games. Bummer.

Amano, every time.

It basically looks like a slightly rebalanced version of the FFVII font; it looks weird to my eyes, in contrast with the SNES-style pixel art, but it’s hardly been a dealbreaker. I just wish they used the squarer glyphs, and sizing/kerning that the same letters use in the JP-specific font. It looks significantly easier on the eyes.

Geez, and I thought having a veritable pile of Final Fantasy IV copies, thanks to all the many ports and remakes, was a little outta hand.

I love the breadth of first game experiences in the comments! Cue warm fuzzies.

The original on NES back in the day. Been my favorite game series ever since. Love that it still continues to evolve and garner new fans, after all these years. Here’s to another 35 of them.

This is so sad. I loved these games; closing down their independent output to just feed the colossal machinery of Fortnite is most unfortunate, but hopefully their creativity will shine through in whatever they do.

I’ve been fortunate to share love of this series with my kid, however, she has mostly enjoyed VII onward. We’re both very excited to play these versions together on Switch now (and hopefully I can convince her that the originals aren’t just for old farts like me).

@Magician That is incredibly poignant. What a wonderful gift; not just the game or the series, but that it helps keep her memory alive for you.

Tears of the Kingdom’s third trailer is great, don’t get me wrong…but I still get chills when the music picks up in the Breath of the Wild presentation trailer. That trailer was mind-blowing, at the time.

@TYRANACLES Interesting, where did you see specific copies? My understanding was that they hadn’t gotten that far yet, and backer surveys (presumably with console selection) would be coming soon.

@inkslinger It’s definitely steeper than usual. The one silver lining may be that, per their most recent backer update, a physical copy of the game will also come with a digital download code, since the physical copies will be arriving to backers later than the digital launch date.

For those wondering about physical editions, I believe you can still preorder a copy through their BackerKit store.

This is definitely one of my most highly anticipated games this year, especially after the demo. Can’t wait!

I have to assume that, like myself, any of those that are wistful for a return to form for E3 are of a certain age/generation, while there are many other younger gamers that couldn’t be bothered — or, perhaps, might even answer the question with “what’s E3?”

The reality of mourning the apparent death of E3 today is that E3 was already dead years ago.

I knew I was going to want the Anniversary Edition for Switch, and so I opted to pay for my preorder ahead of time, rather than wait to be charged….but holy crap, Square really has botched the preorder and release process for this. It truly is baffling. I could understand if the process was more cumbersome for the Anniversay Edition alone, just due to the nature of manufacturing the additional goods that come with it, but it’s hard to understand why just a physical cart release alone need also be so convoluted. Hoping the Play Asia release goes more smoothly.

This is only acceptable if we now also get a sea shanty version of the PokéRap.

Please, please give us a glimpse of the FF Pixel Remaster collection that includes a font that won’t make my eyeballs bleed.

@Thomystic Aw, c’mon, it’s not like they’re out there naming games things like Dungeon Encounters or something. 😏

However, if we’re talking about classic RPGs that aren’t developed or produced by Square, I would really love to see Breath of Fire III and IV come to Switch, especially since we already have I and II in the SNES Online collection. And while we’re at it, Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue. Not holding my breath (heh) for any of them, though.

Yeah, like others have pointed out, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger in the HD-2D style would be incredible. Since the Pixel Remaster series is already coming to Switch, though, I’ll more realistically “settle” for an HD-2D Chrono Trigger to complement the remastered Chrono Cross (and to complete the trifecta of SNES classics Secret of Mana/FFVI/Chrono Trigger released on Switch, please and thank you).

Xenogears would also be amazing, but that probably has some legal hell in the way. Since they’re digging up lesser known classics, an HD-2D remaster of Treasure Hunter G or Bahamut Lagoon would also be pretty cool.

Gods, I wish Iwata-san had been able to see the success of the Switch. Still very missed, and will be for a long time indeed. Looking back on his Direct presentations is a fun, bittersweet reminder of just how special he was, and I appreciate that Nintendo continues to honor him with the format today. Others may copy it now, but none have the excitement of an incoming Nintendo Direct.

@Swirly Right on. Hope it works out, and that you totally love it!

@Swirly Granted, you’re probably going to get some pretty biased opinions around here (heh), but as for mine, I’d wholeheartedly say it’s worth it. Very worth it. I still rock a launch Switch, but have been considering OLED. Mostly play undocked, but enjoy having the opportunity to play docked when the occasion arises (couch multiplayer with my kid and/or friends being a fairly common occurrence). The games lineup is incredible, there are frequent sales (albeit less so with first party content), and it’s very easy to develop a backlog of stuff to keep you busy. It’s hard to overstate how little the novelty has worn off of being able to take your games library, and all your saved content, with you on the go. It’s not the only device that lets you do that nowadays, but it’s arguably the best overall package for it.

@Eddy7eddy Yeah, honestly, I’d be pretty surprised if Switch didn’t eventually either meet or exceed the DS or PS2 numbers, by the end of its lifecycle. At present, it seems like sales would have to fall off a cliff starting right now for that to happen, and yet it already has the makings of a pretty strong CY2023 before we’ve even seen the first Direct of the year.

@johnedwin Indeed, but gonna respectfully disagree; PS3 launched at a pretty eye-watering 599 US Dollars and a slim launch lineup, plus the release pipeline for PS2 at the time was still pretty solid. It took quite awhile for PS3 to find its footing, compared to the launches of PS1 and PS2. If anything was taking away from PS2 sales at the time, I’d say it was probably Xbox 360. Certainly doesn’t preclude the notion that currently available, more powerful hardware could take away from Switch sales in the near future, but Nintendo looks to be in probably the strongest position anyone could hope for right now.

Some additional context makes this even more impressive, honestly:

• The PS2 was on sale for 13 years
• The DS was on sale for around 12 or so
• The PS4 is still on sale nearly 10 years later (I suspect we’ll start seeing talk of it being discontinued over the next year or so)

Given that Switch has almost certainly either met or exceeded PS4 sales, its lifetime sales to date is not only impressive on its own, but arguably even more so that it has sold so well in around half the time as the two top selling consoles ever made. That is absolutely bonkers. Who knows if Switch will sustain that momentum for another 4 or 5 years (or longer), but it seems to be selling much faster than the consoles ahead of it in lifetime sales.

Still read this site frequently, and haven’t commented in awhile, or much ever, but…that subtitle is in really poor taste. I get the reference, and it’s clear that others do, too, but there are going to be readers who won’t, and on top of that, it coming at a time when antisemitic violence is on the rise across the globe just further perpetuates a general apathy to that problem at best, if not outright promoting it as “funny”. I’m sure it seemed like a good joke, but I’d urge y’all to reconsider that position.

Randomly checked the site about a half hour before the availability to claim reward codes was supposed to go live, and was able to claim early. Grateful to have ordered my set, but Nintendo still definitely underestimated the demand for these. :/

Excellent artwork. Can’t wait to see what’s next for the series. Holy crap, it’s been 10 years already! Fingers crossed for a Xenoblade 3 (or what have you) sooner rather than later.

I personally think....why not both?

Monolith reminds me very much of 90s heyday Squaresoft, I’ll pretty much play anything they create at this point. That said, Xenoblade is definitely the RPG behemoth for Nintendo, it makes sense they would want to keep that brand strong. Just please, please, please don’t fall into the same trap of self-referential cash-cowing that ultimately ruined Square.

Speaking of Square, I wonder how “small scale” a partnership between them and Monolith to remake/remaster Xenogears for Switch would end up being...a person can dream, at least.

Argh, bummer. Been waiting for this one, hopefully the extra time will result in a better game on Switch.

Might give this one another go; despite it originally being the long-desired series return to Nintendo that I’d hoped for, it was...well, not what I’d hoped for. Perhaps the passage of time (and the addition of online multiplayer) will help me feel differently about this game now.

I still regularly play games from the 80s and 90s, can’t say I’m too worried about the resolution. The next couple of days are going to go by very slowly.